


Strangers In The Dark

by acadiaisla



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Body Horror, Crying, Heartbreak, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29320149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acadiaisla/pseuds/acadiaisla
Summary: They were both each other's stranger in the dark.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Kudos: 3





	1. Clawing At The Earth

She ran. 

She knew it was the only thing possible she could do, run as far away as possible, until she felt like her legs would simply break. They didn't though, and that's what saddened her.

Frantic footsteps took her past every car, every building, every road in sight until she knew no one would be able to find her for miles, her face was scrunched up in agony, the cold breeze burning her puffy eyelids. 

She reached a forest, a large one at that, it was midnight and she couldn't see where she was going. She just knew she had to get away from it; the love of her life. ''It''. She couldn't put a gender on that person, nor name, it hurt her too much to simply acknowledge that thing's baring existence. She thought she was childish, being dramatic. But this wasn't dramatic in the slightest. 

She thought nothing too bad had happened, but she was sensitive. Her heart simply swelled in her fragile chest at every blink of tears that poured out, her mind racing through the darkness of the forest as she kept running and running. She didn't know where she was going, like she didn't know how to get home. Home? What was home anymore? She didn't have anyone, no, not anymore. She told herself that repeatedly until it itched into her brain.

When she fell, she didn't exactly register it for what felt like hours, but what was really mere minutes. Had she really let someone take over her life so much? Too the point it felt like it was all crashing down without a scratch or small wound to bare this aching feeling in every muscle of her body? 

Her throat hurt, her fingers numb, the soles of her feet screaming at her to go home; lay down, sleep on it. Sleep on it? She felt herself laugh in the midst of her anger, hatred and pure sadness. No amount of sleep could ease any of the roaring wildfire of emotions running through her.

The taste of mud was on her tongue, her mind was so deep in this painful frenzy she didn't even know what she was doing. Desperately trying to instruct her bones to move, her heart to calm down, her head to stop hurting; she got no where. All she could feel beneath her was snow, grass and mud. Her body was ice cold, she didn't know what she was wearing, she could've been wearing nothing at all or five layers of clothes yet she still wouldn't notice. 

She started to scream, scream as loud as she could while writhing on the cold winter ground. Her throat felt like it was exploding with every sound ripping from her throat, she was choking on her tears while struggling to gasp for air. 

She'd heard of people dying from heartbreak. She thought to herself for a moment through her wild screaming; What if she just simply died? Died right here while screaming and crying, from the inevitable heartbreak that surely would follow her for days, weeks, years, decades. She thought it to be a good outcome, dying of heartbreak, she would no longer have to face or even think about the people that broke her trust or stole her innocence. 

But how would someone else feel? Finding a dead body in the forest, outlined in the snow.

She'd no longer get to feel the things she wanted to experience, the things that were thrown out her head at a young age. She wanted to go hiking, swimming. She wanted to be a photographer, travel the world, see every animal in the zoo, visit every cemetery in the world. How would she be able to do that if she was in one of those single cemeteries? 

Her mind came back to focus, in her train of thought she'd stop screaming, but the tears were still evident on her distressed pale cheekbones. Her fingers were eagerly digging into the mud, as if clawing into the earth, hoping to be swallowed up by it. Her stomach was laid out on the glacial surface. She could hear the sounds of birds, insects and wild animals stalking through the trees - though her ears were still ringing constantly. Her throat was emitting mewls of torment every time the wind brushed over her throbbing skin. 

But then she felt it.

She felt them.

She felt the warmth of large arms engulfing her petite body, they didn't pick her up or touch her in places she didn't want to be touched, but the _thing_ simply lifted her slightly and she felt the back off her head being pressed back against a large chest. So, it was a person, she thought. Immediately, she should've started to scream again, shouting at this _gorgeously_ smelling stranger behind her. But she didn't.

Her brain was too muddled, her bones too weak, her throat to hoarse and dry to make any noise of disagreement or discomfort at the way the stranger held her. 

She couldn't see this person, nor did she bother to look up in hopes of seeing a face. She let her body go rigid, submissively giving into the well-needed touch of a stranger. This strangers hands never moved any lower or any higher, their muscled arms wrapped around her torso comfortably, almost tightly. She definitely felt comfortable, her heart loosened and the only thing she could feel was the slight pain in her legs from being against snow for so long? Long? She didn't know how long she'd been in this _supposedly_ isolated forest. 

Minutes past silently, the only thing she could hear was the soft breathing of the stranger behind her, but after a while she could hear their heart too. The stranger's heart thumping against the back of her head made her feel more safe then she'd ever felt in her whole life. No one had ever held her like this, not unless forced by their sympathetic _dirty_ hearts. 

She couldn't feel her limbs anymore and it was like she was floating, she could've compared it to being in a swimming pool, the stranger's arms held her afloat against the painful outcomes of this torturous world. 

She started shivering again, as the ache in her heart subsided and her senses were completely heightened, small whimpers coming from her broken sound box as result of the goosebumps creeping up her skin. Then she felt something new, the stranger's grip tightened around her waist almost possessively and a weep of surprise left her swollen lips when she felt warmt breath against the curve of her shoulder. The stranger was breathing on her, emitting more body warmth. And only then did she realize what this stranger was doing; taking care of her. The stranger hadn't held her to seem dominant or powerful, but to comfort her. 

Her head fell further against the strangers chest and she fought the urge to simply look up, see if this stranger's facial features were as soft and warm as their touch, but she couldn't do it. She was too weak. She could smell the stranger now entirely, the scent of leather and husky vanilla penetrating her nostrils and she fought back a moan at the wonderful smell. 

She didn't move after that but noticed her hair had sprawled out over her features, so that meant the stranger didn't know her either, couldn't see her raw and hurt eyelids or trembling lips. 

So that was when she surrendered completely, she let herself fall asleep against the chest of someone unknown, in the midst of knowledge that they were both purely strangers to one another. 

They were both each other's comforting strangers in the dark.


	2. Moon Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But you're holding me like water in your hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Play 'Moon song' by Phoebe Bridgers while reading.

She was drunk.

She always got drunk when she felt like this, when the mirror in her small bedroom was her only enemy. 

She thought the mirror to be one of those which you'd find in a theme park, possibly in a haunted house whose insides consisted just of mirrors for walls. 

Her hands were shaking briefly, her mind clouded by intoxicating thoughts. It didn't make sense to her, how hideous she was. She felt terrible in her own body, felt trapped within the ugly flesh she'd be suffocated in for as long as she lived. 

It hurt her deeply, the painful ache of self hatred that buried so deep inside her young developing heart. She wondered if screaming would help, it always did, but she couldn't bring herself to do it this time so instead she just sobbed.

She sobbed and _drank_ , until her cheeks were flushed and her head was pounding. This time when she looked in the mirror, she couldn't see the devastating or foul features she was used too, she couldn't tell what size her thighs were or how wide her waist was, she just couldn't see it. Her eyesight was far from pure, but more blurry and she found comfort in not being able to see herself properly. 

But then she felt like panicking because even though she could not see her image, her body, that body that she hated so deeply; she could still feel it. She could feel her skin tightening around her bones when the paining ache of heartburn spread across her chest. She could feel how the skin of her stomach rubbed over another part of skin, she could feel her thighs pressed against the cold floor. It pushed her towards an anxiety attack, she couldn't see what was going on now, she could just feel it in every way possible. 

Her thoughts got too much and she felt like she'd explode out of her skin, suddenly her clothes felt too tight and her limbs felt heavy. The only way she could describe it was as if she was sinking into the ground, all the way to the Earth's core. Her body surrounded by the molten rock of the huge planet. 

After her emotional outbreak, she felt herself walking. A freezing breeze dominated her senses as soon as she walked out the door. She was crying quietly, small tears drifting down her drunken cheeks. Every time she breathed there was a ghostly pit of air that left her mouth to indicate the frigid atmosphere, her throat tightened to the point she felt like she'd been strangled to death. 

Her breathing was uneven, not consistent at all as she walked through the dead of night, until she found herself in front of a forest. She recognized it instantly, it sent shivers down her spine to think of previous events that had occurred in this very forest.

So she walked in.

Her footsteps were heavy as she dragged her ankles along the grass. No snow, she thought. 

This time, her drunken mind almost led her unconsciously until she sat in the middle of a clearing. There were trees around her; mocking her. Her anxiety made her feel like they were laughing at her, the rough bark snickering at her pathetic form, until she whimpered and lowered her body down on the grass.

She was holding herself tightly, clutching onto the warmth of her bloodstream that pumped in her arms. Her mouth fell open and she happily breathed in the numbing February air, she felt herself sobering up now, her eyes stuck on the inky night sky, finding comfort in the way the stars bundled up together while others seemed to drift apart and be utterly independent. 

She winced softly as she felt familiar arms guide her up and back against the most comforting chest in the world, when her sober mind figured out who had touched her, she sighed and instantly fell back into the embrace. 

She didn't feel insecure against the known stranger's chest, she didn't feel like analyzing every flaw in her skin or every part of extra fat holding onto her bones. Her eyes didn't feel like they'd burst out at any moment for waterfalls worth of tears streaming out at the sight of her scars like before. She felt safe, knowing in the arms of this stranger she was protected against her powerful and depressing thoughts. 

She glanced up at the sky again, staring at the light circular moon that made each and every star feel at home, who guided them through the thickness of the galaxies depths. 

''I'd give you the moon.'' She mumbled to the stranger, her voice wasn't recognizable, it was scratchy and shaky.

She heard the stranger sigh behind her and for a moment she wondered what they were thinking, smiling to herself softly, she breathed in the stranger's vinous and potent scent and felt her cheeks warm up. 

She could get used to this; she thought. Shivering in the dark with a complete stranger, though she did wonder why they held her. Her mind was racing every single second since that first night and she had no idea how long it'd been since that awful but life-changing day. Surprisingly, her bed had engulfed her each second since, as some sort of substitute for this stranger.

Realizing what she wanted, she decided to look up slightly and caught glance of dark hair, a leather-covered bicep and a hint of honey skin that she guessed was the stranger's neck. She was satisfied with her discovery and looked away.

The aura around them was serene, as if the two were in their own world. Part of her felt awfully pathetic, she'd only felt okay in these arms. These strong, delicate arms. The stranger held her as if she'd break, like a china doll, and it made her mewl in her head at the thought. 


End file.
